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15 February 2018

MoEDAL is designed to identify new physics in the form of long-lived highly ionizing particles produced in high-energy LHC collisions. Its arrays of plastic nuclear-track detectors and aluminium trapping volumes provide two independent passive detection techniques. We present here the results of a first search for magnetic monopole production in 13 TeV proton-proton collisions using the trapping technique, extending a previous publication with 8 TeV data during LHC Run 1. A total of 222 kg of MoEDAL trapping detector samples was exposed in the forward region and analyzed by searching for induced persistent currents after passage through a superconducting magnetometer. Magnetic charges exceeding half the Dirac charge are excluded in all samples and limits are placed for the first time on the production of magnetic monopoles in 13 TeV pp collisions. The search probes mass ranges previously inaccessible to collider experiments for up to five times the Dirac charge.

15 February 2018

BACKGROUND: The anatomy of carotid stenosis may influence the outcome of endovascular treatment or carotid endarterectomy. Whether anatomy favors one treatment over the other in terms of safety or efficacy has not been investigated in randomized trials. METHODS: In 414 patients with mostly symptomatic carotid stenosis randomized to endovascular treatment (angioplasty or stenting; n = 213) or carotid endarterectomy (n = 211) in the Carotid and Vertebral Artery Transluminal Angioplasty Study (CAVATAS), the degree and length of stenosis and plaque surface irregularity were assessed on baseline intraarterial angiography. Outcome measures were stroke or death occurring between randomization and 30 days after treatment, and ipsilateral stroke and restenosis ≥50% during follow-up. RESULTS: Carotid stenosis longer than 0.65 times the common carotid artery diameter was associated with increased risk of peri-procedural stroke or death after both endovascular treatment [odds ratio 2.79 (1.17-6.65), P = 0.02] and carotid endarterectomy [2.43 (1.03-5.73), P = 0.04], and with increased long-term risk of restenosis in endovascular treatment [hazard ratio 1.68 (1.12-2.53), P = 0.01]. The excess in restenosis after endovascular treatment compared with carotid endarterectomy was significantly greater in patients with long stenosis than with short stenosis at baseline (interaction P = 0.003). Results remained significant after multivariate adjustment. No associations were found for degree of stenosis and plaque surface. CONCLUSIONS: Increasing stenosis length is an independent risk factor for peri-procedural stroke or death in endovascular treatment and carotid endarterectomy, without favoring one treatment over the other. However, the excess restenosis rate after endovascular treatment compared with carotid endarterectomy increases with longer stenosis at baseline. Stenosis length merits further investigation in carotid revascularisation trials.

1 August 2014

9 October 2014

Can physical fitness improve academic achievement? Would teenagers do better in their exams if they could sleep in and start school later? These questions will be part of a multi-million pound research project, funded by the Wellcome Trust and the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF), to investigate a variety of ways neuroscience might improve teaching and learning in the UK.

4 November 2014

San Diego based Abide Therapeutics is collaborating with the University of Oxford and the Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust to explore the therapeutic potential of serine hydrolases, a validated but under-explored class of drug targets.

5 January 2015

Professor Russell Foster, FRS, Professor of Circadian Neurosciences, Head of the Nuffield Laboratory of Ophthalmology, Director of the Sleep and Circadian Neuroscience Institute and Fellow of Brasenose College, has been appointed CBE for services to science.

26 August 2016

The Oxford Project to Investigate Memory and Ageing (OPTIMA) started in 1988 and the last LEAD participants were seen in March 2015. We are no longer recruiting to any of the cohorts. However, we are currently creating the OPTIMA Legacy Resource from which data collected from the OPTIMA cohorts is available and samples are biobanked and available. Brain tissue is available as part of the Brains For Dementia Research (BDR) collection.

21 July 2014

Our group uses computer simulations and mathematical analyses to understand the information processing and activity dynamics of brain networks underlying decision making. We use these models to investigate how neural circuits work in the healthy state, how their dynamics deteriorate in neurological disorders, and how their dynamics and information processing may be best restored by treatments.

14 February 2018

Drug discovery in neuroscience is very challenging but the need is greater than ever. Perhaps the most important factor for successfully developing an effective therapy, is the identification of human disease relevant drug targets. Our group aims to elucidate the pathophysiological basis of human neurological disorders from genetic molecular networks to complex neural systems using human genetics, human models and human tissue wherever possible.